1819 Muster Roll of Soldiers from Belen and Sabinal

One of my favorite resources is the book "Rio Abajo: Prehistory and History of a Rio Grande Province" edited by Michael P. Marshall and Henry J. Walt. The book is an archealogical and historical survey of the New Mexico communities south of Belen. Included among the histories are transcriptions of historical documents, such as a "Review of Militia, Mayoralty of Belen, November 4, 1819" (pages 263-264.) This muster lists 50 men, their ranks, and the weapons they carried.

Since this book is copyrighted, I am not going to list the men here. However, if you are interested in finding out who is on the list, send me an e-mail at abqbobcat@nmia.com.

If you ever get a chance, find this book in a library or purchase yourself a copy. Amazon.com has used copies starting at $180.52. I would try to find it elsewhere. I found a $30 copy at a used bookstore once.

February 2008 New Mexico Genealogical Society Newsletter

New Mexico Genealogical Society
PO Box 27559, Albuquerque, NM 87125-7559
Website: http://www.nmgs.org/

E-mail Newsletter
February 2008

Table of Contents
1. President’s Message
2. 2008 Membership Dues
3. Upcoming Programs
4. E-mail and Snail Mail Woes
5. Links
6. NMGS Website
7. Subscribe / Unsubscribe


1. President’s Message

Greetings:

First, I wish to introduce myself. My name is Robert J. C. Baca and I am the President of the New Mexico Genealogical Society. I took office on January 1, 2008. I look forward to the upcoming year. We will have a number of fantastic programs this year, but more on that later.

As part of my duties, I will be sending out an E-mail newsletter at the beginning of each month. These newsletters will include information about upcoming events and news from the New Mexico Genealogical Society.

2. 2008 Membership Dues

It’s time to renew your New Mexico Genealogical Society membership for 2008. You still have time to renew it at the standard rate of $25.00 a year. If you wait until after March 1st, you will have to pay an extra $5.00 to defray individual postal costs. So please renew your membership today!

Membership has its privileges. First, you will receive the quarterly journal the New Mexico Genealogist. This year’s issues promise to be good ones. Second, you will receive free shipping for books published by our own NMGS Press. You can even get discounts on certain items such as the 3rd Edition of Genealogical Resources of New Mexico and The New Mexico Genealogist: The First 40 years on CD. Third, you can use your membership to meet others who have an interest in New Mexico genealogy like you do.

To renew your membership, go to the following link, complete the form and send it to the New Mexico Genealogical Society with a check or money order:

http://www.nmgs.org/Memform2008.pdf


3. Upcoming Programs

Saturday February 16, 2008, 10:30 A.M., Botts Hall, Special Collections Library, Edith and Central NE, Albuquerque, NM.

Former NMGS President Nancy Anderson will be holding an interactive workshop titled “Searching for New Mexican Ancestors through the Internet”. Nancy will share websites that are useful to people researching New Mexican genealogy. She encourages attendees to share websites that you have found useful.

Saturday March 15, 2008, 10:30 A.M., Los Lunas Museum of Heritage and the Arts, 251 Main St., Los Lunas, NM.

Celebrate with us the newly opened Los Lunas Museum of Heritage and the Arts by attending a presentation by noted genealogist Francisco Sisneros. Francisco will be telling the story of “Ana de Sandoval y Manzanares: Woman of Perseverance and Triumph”. This woman from history was recently selected to represent Valencia County in the New Mexico Historic Marker Initiative.

This program is our first “field trip” traveling program of the year. We intend to bring our programs to three New Mexico cities this year.

Prior to this presentation, the director of the Los Lunas Museum of Heritage and the Arts invites you to attend the Grand Opening of the museum on February 29, 2008. Please come join other NMGS members at this opening.

All programs are open and free to the public. For more information about these programs, please visit our website at http://www.nmgs.org/workshop.htm. You can also find on this page a map to the Los Lunas Museum of Heritage and the Arts.


4. E-Mail and Snail Mail Woes

We are having a few problems with our e-mail: it is bouncing. If you are having problems contact us, please send an e-mail to my personal account instead: abqbobcat@nmia.com. You may also call me at (505) 299-7883. We are working to get this problem fixed.

Unfortunately, we are also having problems with the post office, too. If your mail was sent back to you, please contact me. I will find a solution. We are working with the post office to make sure that this problem does not happen again.

- Robert Baca, NMGS President


5. Links

As a way to prepare for the March program in Los Lunas, I wish to share these websites links with you:

Los Lunas Museum of Heritage and the Arts official website

http://www.loslunasnm.gov/index.asp?NID=104

“Commission Recommends Five Names for Historic Road Markers” in the Valencia County News Bulletin.com

http://www.news-bulletin.com/news/64847-09-20-06.html

Press Release “First Lady Barbara Richardson to Attend Event Honoring New Mexican Women”

http://www.governor.state.nm.us/press/2007/july/071807_01.pdf


6. NMGS Website

Visit the New Mexico Genealogical Society website at

http://www.nmgs.org/

Keep up with NMGS News, find online articles, order books, and much, much more.

A listing of the books published by NMGS Press can be found at

http://www.nmgs.org/books.htm

Online articles are at

http://www.nmgs.org/znmgs.htm


7. Subscribe / Unsubscribe

If someone forwarded this newsletter to you and you wish to subscribe, please send me an E-mail at abqbobcat@nmia.com. Put in the subject line the word “Subscribe: NMGS Newsletter”.

If you do not wish to receive this E-mail newsletter, please send me an E-mail at abqbobcat@nmia.com. Put in the subject line the word “Unsubscribe: NMGS Newsletter”.

Albuquerque Tribune Genealogy Blog

Mary Penner, a member of the New Mexico Genealogical Society, writes a genealogy column for the Albuquerque Tribune. Her columns are posted in a blog on the Tribune website.

Her previous articles include:

* FBI Records can provide information on relatives
* Fire ruined most of 1890 Census info
* Photographs can provide researchers some fun

... and many, many more.

Link.

Internet Workshop at the Special Collections Library in Albuquerque

A workshop presented by the New Mexico Genealogical Society

Saturday, February 16, 2008,

10:30 A.M.

Botts Hall,

Special Collections Library,

Edith Blvd. and Central Ave., Albuquerque, N.M.

An interactive workshop

Searching for New Mexican Ancestors through the Internet

Facilitated by Nancy Anderson

Past President, New Mexico Genealogical Society

Nancy will discuss and demonstrate websites for finding New Mexico roots. This workshop is interactive. Attendees are encouraged to share examples of web sites that they have found useful.

The workshop is free and open to the public. You will find it helpfulwhether you have just begun researching your family history, you are a seasoned genealogist, or somewhere in between.

Link.

Coming soon: an announcement about a March 15, 2008 NMGS program at the Los Lunas Museum of Heritage and Arts.

The Center for Land Grant Studies

I found this link while looking for something else. It is The Center for Land Grant Studies. From the site:

The Center for Land Grant Studies is a 501-c-3 non-profit organization devoted to research, education and distribution of books and other materials about the Southwest, with an emphasis on land and water rights issues of traditional communities in New Mexico. The Center focuses on Spanish and Mexican Land Grants made to Hispanics and Native Americans, as well as genealogical materials connected with the rural communities of New Mexico.

The site has a catalogue of books, manuscripts, genealogical materials, and other sources on New Mexico land grant studies. There is also a "preliminary" land grant database on the site.

Also on the site are notes from a Malcolm Ebright lecture on the essential elements of New Mexico land grants, and the complete text of The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo , among other items of interest.

President of the New Mexico Genealogical Society

Recently, I was elected as the President of the New Mexico Genealogical Society. I took over the position on 1 January 2008. Since I have new responsibilities, I won't be posting quite as many articles on this blog as before. That doesn't mean I'm going to stop - just that I am going to slow down a little bit.

The good thing about being president is that I am now more focused about publishing my genealogy. Therefore, I will be submitting articles to the New Mexico Genealogist and other journals soon. In fact, I already submitted an article to the journal for the March 2008 issue.

Check this blog for news about my articles. I will continue posting research that I am working on. In fact, much of what is in my first article can be found on this blog.

Link to the New Mexico Genealogical Society.

Free Genealogy: Genealogy Trails

I discovered the Genealogy Trails website while Googling a distant cousin. This site includes cemetary transcriptions, census records, obituaries and other information. Although it is not the only site of this type, (see USGenWeb, for instance) it does have some unique data.

Here is a link to the site.

By the way, what I found on the site weretranscriptions of Benito and Emilia Zimmerly's tombstones. Benito was my grandmother Paublita's 1st cousin.

Baca Food Store

Many of my family have owned businesses throughout the years. One of the stores that my mother's parents owned was the Baca Food Store*. My grandparents Santiago and Paublita (Zimmerly) Baca also owned a clothier store and my grandmother owned a fabric store after my grandfather's death.


Below are photos of the Baca Food Store Float from a 1940s parade. The two youngsters pictured are my mother Frances Baca and my uncle Jimmy Baca.

My great uncle Albert Zimmerly supplied me with these photos.

* I've also heard that the grocery store went by another name - La Bajada Grocery. See this obituary for more information.

The Royal Road - El Camino Real

This Christmas, my family told me about the El Camino Real International Heritage Center. Being a history buff, I decided to find out more about it.

According to the museum's website:

El Camino Real International Heritage Center (ECRIHC) is one of New Mexico's newest State monuments, dedicated in November 2005. The Center contains award winning exhibits, interpretive learning center, and artifacts presenting the history and heritage of El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro - the Royal Road to the Interior.

Spain and Mexico used the royal road to colonize and bring goods to New Mexico from 1598 until the late 1800s. You can find a short history of the trail here. Longer articles about the El Camino Real can be found on this page, including an article that mentions my great uncle Albert Zimmerly.

Although I haven't visited the museum yet, you can bet that I will in the near future. If you are in or around Socorro any time soon, use these directions to find the musuem.

Happy Birthday, Grandfather Santiago!

I was visiting my aunt yesterday when she reminded me that my grandfather Santiago Baca would have been 100 years old this Christmas Eve. He was born to Rafael and Josefa (Padilla) Baca on 24 December 1907 in Luis Lopez, New Mexico. He died in 1961 in Socorro, New Mexico.